


Starlight

by MissMartine



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-09
Updated: 2017-07-09
Packaged: 2018-11-29 17:16:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11445420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissMartine/pseuds/MissMartine
Summary: Moonlight, starlight, dealing with the after-effects of a warp in the space-time continuum. Sometime post season 6.





	Starlight

It started like any other evening out of town, on a case in a remote area of West Virginia. Finding themselves free to sit down and eat a real dinner in a real restaurant, they had just finished and were driving back to the motel, several miles down the highway. A new moon arced above the road as they drove, but there was little other light.

Scully flicked on the radio, breaking the silence. A man’s voice sung out plaintively. “In my memory you are moonlight, starlight…” 

Mulder jumped visibly in the driver’s seat, his hands clenching around the steering wheel.

“You ok Mulder?” Scully frowned. Mulder reached to adjust the radio volume, turning it slightly higher. 

“Yeah,” he breathed, “just trying to think… I feel like I’ve heard this song before.”

Scully listened to the strains of country guitar playing behind the singer. He was going on about missing someone. Melancholy, but unfamiliar. “Hmm, I don’t know this one.”

Mulder contemplated. The feeling of deja vu was sweeping over him so strongly, he almost felt sick. They were pulling into the motel parking lot now, but when he parked the car he kept the radio on. Scully undid her safety belt and turned toward him.

“What is it, Mulder?” His face wore that look he got when he was trying to make the final leap of insight on an investigation, explaining everything with such passion that she always almost took his word for it, despite her scientific rationale.

“I know I’ve heard this song before, Scully. And I know I was with you.” She had been right - he sounded absolutely convinced. He went on. “I just have this feeling of - of you looking at me, and telling me something so important and so sad.” In fact, Mulder looked as if he might shed a tear at any moment. “Was there a time when you drove away and left me in the desert, Scully?” he asked hesitantly. He couldn’t place the shadowy memory or the sensation of loss wicking away at his heart, but it was undeniably there. 

But she shook her head. “I don’t think so, Mulder.” Her voice was firm and he ached to find reassurance in it. Without evidence from him, she would prove to be right anyway. Scully sighed. “I would tell you if I remembered…” She trailed off. He was gazing at her in a way unlike she’d ever seen before. She met his eyes. The radio played, “I’m staring at the stars, wondering where you are…” Indeed the stars were scattered widely above them, far more visible than back home in D.C. But neither of them was lost, for once, or in danger. Scully reached out to Mulder and took his hand. She might not be affected by the same feeling he was having, but she suddenly knew what to say.

“I’m right here, Mulder,” she told him softly. His fingers curled gratefully into hers and they sat quietly, letting the song play out, neither in a rush to end this little unexpected moment. They had to take their moments when they could get them. At last the melody faded away, voice and chords fading into silence. The radio dj did not identify the song. Mulder pressed his eyes closed against the sensation of life rewound, and gently pulled his hand away to turn off the ignition. 

Outside the car, Mulder paused to look back through the windshield, somehow struck with relief that Scully was not still in the passenger seat, staring at him with a kind of disrecognization. He turned back to her, real and present beside him, and as they walked down the path to their rooms he found excuse to bump his arm gently against hers. 

She took his hand again. The starlight guided them on.


End file.
